Battle for the billions

So it turns out things are working out pretty sublime for advertising online. According to a recent survey by the IAB (that’s the Internet Advertising Bureau to you and me), the revenue from internet advertising has really booted-up, and now tops the £4bn mark. No prizes for guessing where the biggest rise has been? Yep, social media. Specifically, it’s display advertising on social networks that has really popped-up with Facebook in particular working hard to get advertisers onside.

With a whopping 25 per cent of our time online spent on said networks, the ability of sites to target ads specifically based on the detailed account info and the ‘like’ feature encouraging users to recommend products, service and brands to friends, it’s no great surprise that advertisers are spotting the potential.

And that’s not it for Facebook. In a survey carried out last year by Online Marketing Connect, 55 per cent of companies said that Facebook was “improving brand awareness and reputation”. It’s no wonder small and medium sized enterprises are following the big brands and working hard to create their online presence. Check out the free guides we have created to help guide best practice in social media.

But the scrap to become social king doesn’t stop there. Yesterday Google launched it’s much hyped ‘+1’ feature, which should see things heat up pitting Google against Facebook in the race for share of that £4bn. Google +1 works much like Facebook ‘likes’, allowing users to see in Google search results where friends have recommended a given product or service. Plus to use the +1 feature searchers must first be signed in to their Google account, giving Google access to the same level of detailed personal information as Facebook gets.

So Facebook may have won this battle for the billons. But watch this (web) space for who might win the war...